Colorado
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Colorado Visitors Center
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Cherry Creek State Park, Denver
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Black-billed Magpie
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Lois' feet in snow - May 12
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Colorado State Capitol Building
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Lois at 5,280 feet
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Fred one mile high
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16th Street Mall District
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Purple line is row of seats one
mile high
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Our Colorado home
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View to north
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View to south
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View to west
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Arkansas River out our backdoor
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May 13 - River running at 200
cubic feet per second-See June 3 river
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A picture of the trout I did
not catch, yet. See fish Fred caught
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Colorado White Water Association
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300+ Kayakers in camp
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Royal Gorge Entrance
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The Bridge
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Rafters in the Gorge
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RR tracks on left, tiny red raft
in river
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Unused old wooden water pipeline
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45 degree Incline Tram to bottom-view
looking up
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Aerial Tram
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Water Clock
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Buckskin Joe's Train
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Rode to Gorge Overlook
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Buckskin Sheriff
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Shootout at Buckskin
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Views from our hiking adventures
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Lois is pooped here!
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Fred is better at hiking than
Lois
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Monarch Pass 11,342 feet
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Charlie, Maryann, Joy, Carl,
Lois
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In the gondola on the way to
the summit
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Monarch Pass ski runs
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Views from the summit
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At the top
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Straddling the Continental Divide
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June 3 River running at 3500
cubic feet per second--snow melt in mountains
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Three Brown trout - Delicious!
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Royal Gorge Train Route Adventure
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Fellow Workampers
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On our way
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View of bridge
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Cabin used while building the
railroad
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On our way back
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Rafting group before
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Joy and Lois getting fitted for
life jackets
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Heather (Viking dodo bird)
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David and Zack, guides
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Rough water ahead
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Smoother water
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Other Workampers
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One of many splashes
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5 Points Rapids (Notes)
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Lois and Fred after being splashed
several times
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Our raft group after the trip
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Trip to Texas for Steve and Paige's
wedding - Quilt made by Susan and Lois
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Hail and sleet - Raton Pass -
June 16
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Tour of Mollie Kathleen Gold
Mine - Cripple Creek
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Don't we look cute in our hard
hats?
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Cripple Creek Narrow Gauge Railroad
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Russell and Lindsey Miller June 28, 2003 |
I've seen everything now!
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Fred and Lois clean up!
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Cute!
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Susan was a beautiful mother
of the groom!
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Here we are at the bottom of
the Royal Gorge with Eric, Denise, Kyle and Tom
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Eric, Kyle, Denise, Tom
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On the bridge, 1053 feet above
the Arkansas River
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Jane and Ryan
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Came to visit
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Caubles came to visit-It's still
cold in the river!
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Royal Gorge
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It's been a long time since Grandma
has been on a carousel
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Monarch at the Gorge
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Amber, Mayor of Buckskin Joe
and Sarah
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Garden of the Gods - Kissing
Camels
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Fred, Lois, Carl, Joy, Helen,
Gene Notes
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Cog rails going up
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Aspen car ahead of us
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Pikes Peak tundra
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Yellow-bellied marmot
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We were in the clouds!
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At the top!
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Big Horn Sheep
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O'Haver Lake, Elev. 9200 ft.
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Friendly chipmunk
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Mountain Flowers
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Our first view of Il Capriccio
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Helicopter view
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It was a great flight!
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Baby sister and Big brother
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Jim, Lorraine, Lois, Fred
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Amazing sight among the mountains
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Royal Gorge trip
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Views from helicopter
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As you remember, Florida welcomed us into winter
with cold rainy weather; well Colorado could not let go of winter and welcomed
us with a 7" snow storm. It was a very wet snow and did a lot of damage
to the trees in Denver. When we got to the state park just south of Denver,
most was gone except for the edges of the roads. The state park where we stayed
was just 15 miles south of downtown Denver. As we were getting ready to leave
the park, a coyote came walking across the road; I guess he was used to people
being there and he was going to visit the trash cans.
We went into the downtown area to visit the Capital and see the "mile high"
steps. The step that is actually marked as being 5,280 ft. above sea level has
moved up a few feet since they first built the capital; I guess Denver is rising.
One of the other sites we wanted to see was the 16th Street Mall District. It
is an area of their downtown that has been turned into a walking outside mall.
The only thing on the street area are city buses that continually run from one
end to the other. The buses are free and run until 1:30 AM each day. In between
the bus lanes are art pieces, benches for resting and several set of chairs
and tables made for people to play chess. All the chess tables were full while
we were there. It was interesting to see the people playing chess, if you saw
them away from the chess tables you might think they were just street people.
Almost all the tables had a crowd around watching the players work their strategies.
We had tickets for the night game at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies
baseball team. We were actually able to park next to the capital, take the free
mall bus down to the far end and then just walk four blocks to the baseball
field. After the game we caught another shuttle that took us to the other end
and back to the truck. It was a great place to shop and just "people watch".
Our trip from Denver to Cotopaxi took a little longer than we expected, we have
to get used to the travel times when you are winding through a mountain canyon.
Highway 50 runs right through the "Big Horn Sheep Canyon" and the
RV park is half way between Canon City and Salida. One side of the park is bordered
by Hwy 50 and the other side is paralleled by the Arkansas River. As soon as
you cross the river, the canyon wall rises quickly. As you approach Salida going
west, the valley does open up to more meadows and the highway is not as crooked.
Salida will be the main shopping point for us, it has WalMart, Ace Hardware,
a Library and will actually have 5 concerts this summer with visiting musicians
from the Aspen Music Festival.
Our first site seeing trip was to the Royal Gorge. As the Arkansas River makes
its way through the canyon, the terrain through which is has cut its path is
drastically different. At Salida, the river is running through a vast valley
with foothills of the mountains several miles away. At the location of our campground,
the river passes through a canyon that rises several hundred feet within a few
yards of the river. At the area called the Royal Gorge, the river is actually
1,053 ft below the top edge of the canyon. The main attraction is the suspension
bridge that crosses the gorge; it is the highest suspension bridge in the world
and is 1/4 mile long. We initially walked across to get the full effect and
the river is a narrow strip of water, way below us. We could see white water
rafters going through the canyon from the bridge. To get the full effect of
the depth of the canyon, there is a 45 degree incline tram that takes you all
the way to the bottom. You get into a metal cage, standing up, and then it lowers
you into the canyon; the walls of the canyon are right outside the cage. At
the bottom you can see the river rushing by with big rapids. The river at that
point is about 50-60 ft. wide, speeding through solid granite walls. When we
got back on top, we took another method to view the canyon, an aerial tram that
crosses the canyon on cables. This is the type of aerial tram that reminds you
of adventure movies with the hero and the bad guy are up on top fighting it
out, with one of them falling into the canyon. There is actually a sign in the
tram that says, "If the tram car stops, please remain calm and stay inside
the car"; as if anyone would be willing to open the door and step out.
There is also a petting zoo and a carousel and train for the kiddos. All in
all, we walked across the bridge three times looking at various features.
Down the road from the bridge is Buckskin Joe's Old West Town. It is a collection
of old buildings from the frontier days in Colorado, mostly recovered from mining
towns that were deserted when the gold rush ran out. There are buildings set
up just like the 1800's, a bank, candy store, stables, saloons, dentist office
and many others. At various times of the day there are "shoot outs"
right along the main street. The town has been used for many western shows and
we even saw the tub that John Wayne bathed in. Another attraction next to the
gift shop is a train that winds its way back through the hillside and brings
you right up to the edge of the canyon for another spectacular view of the Royal
Gorge Bridge. Next week we hope to go up to Cripple Creek, site of one of the
major gold mines and now is a real sample of the old west; it now is a major
casino area.
White Water Rafting
We finally took a "white water rafting" trip;
it is one of the most popular activities for this area of Colorado. At least
this year there is water in the river for the rafting companies. We floated
for about 10 miles and went through several rapids, some were Class IV rapids;
those had really big waves and got almost everyone on the raft wet. Lois and
I were on the left side of the raft and it seemed that our side was always the
side to go right into the wave crest. In the piciture above labelled "5
Points Rapid", you can see the amazement on both mine and Lois' faces.
That is what you look like after just being completely covered with a wave of
55 degree water, really cold. As you can see, the two guides in the back are
completely at ease; it helps to know what is happening. It was really fun and
we have another free trip to take, but we will wait until the water levels go
back down a little. We have had major rains almost every afternoon for the last
week and the river flow is going back up.
On our trip up Pike's Peak we learned something new.
As we got up to about 10,000 ft. we began to see Aspen trees. They are tall,
slender and a member of the Poplar family. What we learned was that the Indians
used them for two special purposes. They used to rub their arms on the bark
and got an ingredient that contained Vitamin E and was used for a sunscreen.
They also were able to grind the bark and get a form of aspirin to take. The
idea for making the Pike's Peak Railroad orginated by a Mr. Simmons that thought
people should have an easy way to get to the top. That is the same Mr. Simmons
that created the Simmons Mattress Company. The yellow belly marmot lives on
the mountainside year round and hibernates in shallow burrows from October to
March.
